SERGIUS III, POPE. - Of Roman origin, d. 15 Apr. 911. Ordained subdeacon by Marinus I (882-84), deacon by Stephen V (885-91), bishop of Caere, and by force, as it were, consecrated by Formosus (c. 893); after the Cadaver Synod of 897, in which he took an active part, he had himself reordained priest by Stephen VI, since he aspired to the papacy.
At the death of Theodore II (Dec. 897) he was elected pope together with John IX (v.), who succeeded in being consecrated first. Deprived and condemned at the Roman Synod of 898 (can. 8: Mansi XVIII, 226), he awaited his revenge in exile: in Jan. 904, with the support, it seems, of Alberic of Spoleto and his Roman friends, he overthrew the antipope Christopher and, considering his first election valid (he always regarded John IX and his successors as intruders), had himself consecrated on 29 Jan. Probably Leo V, the true pope, was still alive, having been imprisoned by the antipope Christopher, so that the beginnings of his pontificate, not to speak of his election, would not have been legitimate; yet he was later judged to be the true pope. One of his first acts was to repeal the decisions of the Roman and Ravenna Synods of 898 that rehabilitated Formosus and his ordinations and to proclaim them invalid again, even to justify his transfer from the see of Caere to that of Rome; the decision was enforced with a severity hitherto unknown: bishops, priests, deacons ordained by Formosus had either to be reordained or to relinquish their posts, and even the aforesaid pope was forbidden to be called a priest (cf. Jaffé-Wattenbach, no. 3534). His act provoked scandals and protests in Rome and beyond, but in the Urbe all opposition was silenced by force. Evidence of the grave unrest in the Church at the time is found in contemporary works, certainly partisan but on the whole reliable, by the Formosan priests Auxilius and Vulgarius (cf. E. Dümmler, Auxilius in Romam, composed between 914 and 928 (PL 129, 823-38) and in the works of Liutprand of Cremona (Antapodosis, I. 29-31; II, 48; III, 43; ed. J. Becker, Hannover 1915, pp. 23, 58-59, 96). In 906 the Emperor Leo appealed to Sergius against Patriarch Nicholas over the question of his fourth marriage; his legates granted him what he sought. He continued the work of rebuilding the Lateran Basilica, which had collapsed in the time of Stephen VI, a project already begun by John IX. Like Adrian I before him, he had his portrait reproduced on Roman coins (cf. G. Ladner, I ritratti dei papi nell'antichità e nel Medioevo, I, Vatican City 1941, pp. 111, 159-61). He maintained close ties of friendship with the vestararius Theophylact and his wife Theodora. As for Sergius’ relationship with their daughter Marozia and his consequent paternity of John XI, Fedele believed he could establish it by conjecture, but Duchesne, relying on the papal catalogues inserted in the Liber Pontificalis, adduced good evidence for its reality.
Sergius III - SERIO ROSA MARIA
prince Dimitrij in the war against the Tatars and, learning of his victory in distant places by revelation, had his monks sing a Te Deum. The name of Sergius is linked to this victory and he is regarded as the protector of the fatherland. While Sergius was still alive, 25 other monasteries sprang from the Laura of the Trinity, a number that should be tripled to measure the convents founded through his initiative. He was canonized in 1452 and his cult was officially recognized by the Catholic Church with the insertion of his name in the Slavonic Epistolary of 1942. Feast: 25 Sept.